This quote could indeed be an extractfrom the bible but my source is a different one and my intention is certainly not to convert anyone.
On my flight from Dubai to Hong Kong the movie “Limitless” mesmerized me. The protagonist was given a brain doping drug which increased his brain activity up to tenfold and allowed him to become the master of his soul; the captain of his fate, with some detours.
This quote amazed me as the protagonist was able to see his surrounding very clearly and his brain became able to process all of the data he received by his sense. For me, in Hong Kong, it meant to see myself without my surrounding and therefore the purer essence of me. Within one week in Hong Kong I became much more aware of my qualities and how I might use them in the future, as well as through passive feedback from others. In addition my weaknesses appeared evident as well as the conclusions which made them a mere task to work on.
Moreover I devoted myself to the book “7 habits for highly effective people” by Steven Covey for a second time and it is stunning how much I was able to implement these habits into my life but I still lack. There is still a long way to go.
Hong Kong will be a good environment for me though as it will be a test me, what I can achieve through my own hard work in 10 months, without help from other people I knew before. Problem solving will be one of the qualities to master over here as well as getting to know other people and networking.
Furthermore one just cannot always plan ahead as the Chinese mentality presupposes a spontaneous and creative way to adapt and change rock-solid plans made a hundred years ago. Okay that might be exaggerated but it is indeed differs from the German approach.
In the end, another quote which I thing is very important for young ambitious individuals like me.
Back again! Since we do not have Internet in our flat yet, blogging is only possible from work.
The CS language club was definitely worth the visit! Not only did I meet new people but they could actually support me with profound knowledge about the level of difficulty of learning Mandarin/ Cantonese and simplified/ traditional. Now, I am more confident that simplified Mandarin combined with some Cantonese to get along is my reconsidered choice. This Evening I will see them again and learn some new sentences in Mandarin.
Before that meeting last week we went to a Sichuan place, where they featured "mouth numbing" noodle soup. I expected it to be exceptional spicy but instead my whole mouth started to tingle and prickle for about 10 minutes. At first it was just funny but as the tingling grew stronger I really felt uneasy about it. Good thing it stopped!
For our new apartment we chose different sources for articles of daily use. Luckily our teachers and friends over here are extremely kind and provided us with cutlery, blankets, pans& pots...Some more stuff
came from the local supermarket and Ikea. The only thing missing are electronics, like a water boiler and a rice cooker. We will probably but them used as there are some good deals on Asia.expat and craigslist.
Finally school has started for real and I develop an actual daily rhythm. Getting up early is always hard but it is worth it as we only have to work till 3pm. In addition my work is getting more interesting as all of the boring labelling, printing and laminating will decrease over the next few weeks. When I have actually adapted to a daily schedule I will post a “regular day”; well as regular as it will get from my work at least ; )
Now that school has officially started, I got to know some parents at the entrance ceremony and even received some tutoring-requests which I gladly accepted. Not only do I need the money but I actually enjoy to support the willing ; ) I think it is remarkable that some of the kids grow up with two or three languages at the same time.
I found a minibus who takes me to work in 20 minutes which is amazing as I can sleep longer in the morning! In the afternoon it does still take me ages to get home as the traffic is so bad. The best option so far is to take the bus to the first MTR station and from there on, take the train.
A couple posts ago I noted that the Chinese mentality is guest friendly. After one more week I want to add to that statement. Not only are they courteous but really generous, too. In my opinion most of the Germans should follow their example. We get regularly invited to drinks, music- or sport-events or even dinner.Maybe I have already acquire this quality earlier as an old lady in a coffee shop tried for at least a minute to communicate that I am very attentive; in her broken English.
Nearly every day I try new food, like the Japanese sponge cake which is really airy, soft and sweet and in different flavors available. On Sunday evening my friend Joyce invited us over to her place for dinner with her parents. As her mother is an angel, she created a fantastic dinner on short notice and provided us with even more cutlery for our apartment. Now we can feed at least a dozen people from plates!
At her place we had seafood (fish and clams) with a cucumber like vegetable, rice; of course and beef For dessert we had sweet young ginger, yellow kiwis, some dark coloured Tofu which smelled and tasted like old cheese and another bitter vegetable. Besides the bitter one, I really enjoyed the food, especially the delicate ginger!!
Oh and last Friday we went out for seafood to Lamma Island by ferry. We got invited by our teachers from school and besides the tasty seafood it was an entertaining trip to a more quite place of Hong Kong. At first I was sceptical but there actually exists something like a quite spot on these islands. Afterwards we payed a visit to the Red Bar in Cetral, where you can enjoy your own beer with a superb view on the Kowloon Skyline. In Germany a spot like that would be commercialised for sure!
On Saturday we slept in for once and went over to a colleague to enjoy a German barbecue with them and German speaking expats. Always nice to know that the German culture lives on, even in Hong Kong.
We still have no Internet, no washing machine and no stove but at least the last two are getting connected today. We hope that we will be able to take over an Internet contract from some expat who returns to his home country as the minimum length of contract is 18 months.
But as these contracts are on high demand, we did not have any luck yet to acquire one. We definitely need one soon though! I just "wasted" my whole breakfast break for blogging :(
After a few days of absence, our Internet connection is back up and I can blog again! On Saturday we went to Macao to activate Cornelius's visa. As we were short on time we could only visit the famous casino Venezian. As the name implies, it is a replica of the venetian architecture with channels, gondolas, a Bellini Lounge and of course the "old" Venetian buildings. It sounds amazing and partially looks amazing as well but indeed it is just artificial. The gondoliers (Asians) sing venetian songs, the floor is made out of plastic, Mac Donalds and other shops appear to be miss placed in this setting, the lighting is factitious and the sky is only painted. In conclusion I was more deterred than amazed by this tourist attraction, or more precisely, by this non sustainable money factory. Oh, and of course the whole place was cooled down to about 18 degrees Celsius.
Here is another view on one of the many halls of the building! Due to curiosity I looked up some facts about the building. It was finished in July 2007 and cost 2,4 Billion $ but fills about 980,000 m2 with 3000 suits, 3400 slot machines, 800 gambling tables and a 15,000 seat arena for entertainment/sports events. It is vast!
Saturday evening; I have been here for almost a week now. Jet lag, if I even had any, is gone and it became absolutely normal to stroll around a few corners to find an yet unknown place to eat. As a prefix, I did not want to go to the same place even once for the first month. In addition only Asian food is an option for breakfast, lunch and dinner. So far I have tried a lot of different food from a few Chinese cooking styles, Korean, Japanese, Thai cuisine and Malaysian. I will not add everything I have tried to my diet but there were many tasty things I discovered. Eating spicy food became a habit, too.
On Sunday we decided to go to the beach, to Deepwater Bay. Unfortunately we had to change plans as Deepwater Bay had red tide on Sunday, so we had to take a detour and go to Clearwater Bay in east Kowloon. Not only was the water actually clear but it was not as crowded as we expected! In addition, most of the Chinese guests preferred to stay in waist-deep water so we could swim around freely.
After a nice bath in 26 degree Celsius water we went over to some locals and joined their game of volleyball. They were really friendly and we had a great time with many laughs, even without communicating much. Over here, you are always welcome if you carry a smile on your face and treat everyone the same.
In the afternoon we went by some shops to get an impression how much money we will have to spent for our daily food and for outfitting our apartment. In conclusion, furniture is cheap, as well as local food. Meat, fish, milk and all western products are as expensive as in Germany or even more expensive. Our choice of supermarket was Wellcome, which is comparable to a German Rewe. I guess we will find a cheaper way to acquire food though.
Today, we opened our very own bank account at the HSBC bank! Not only was it another step to settle in but we were able to get a direct contact through our head of accounting department which made the process a lot easier. In a bit we will head out to our first couchsurfer meeting nearby. A language study group based on learning English and Mandarin from each other. I am excited and look forward to meet new people!
After days of exhausting search we finally found a suitable apartment! As there is still a rusty pipe to fix and a bed missing it will be a few days until we can move in but we are relived to have one less thing one our mind.
It is located in the heart of Wan Chai so we have any possible means of public transit to get to work or to Kowloon. The size is just under 500square-feet (45 square meters), it has a new kitchen and for guests a sofa-sleeper. On the contrary we still need to do some handy work and get a table `plus chairs.
Many thanks go to the mother of our friend Joyce who helped us prodigiously by checking all conditions of rent and talking to the real estate agent. Without her we would not have a flat yet as we were anxious to get fooled. Now we are tremendously more confident that we found a good place to stay.
Pictures will follow after the renovation is done--> August 26th.
Tomorrow [yesterday due to weak internet connection this post was not published ] we will leave Hong Kong to visit Macao as we want to activate Cornelius's Visa to apply for a Hong Kong ID-Card. In the next days we will open a bank account at HSBC, get us registered at the embassy and of course meet new interesting people.
Welcome abroad to all the other volunteers who arrived at their final destination :)
A few days ago I had the luck to be invited to dinner by an old friend of mine from Canada who was born and raised in mainland China. Long story short, he asked me to come to a so called tea house for dinner with him and two of his friends who are in Hong Kong for two days.
The interior design was quite old and, as he informed me, the restaurant has already been in business for 70 years and is apparently well known. The food served was very tasty but traditional so the ingredients do normally not appear on my diet. I do not remember all courses as the dinner had many diverse components.
For an appetiser we had pigeon lung in a rich source, followed by pork liver (cooked), pork liver soup (white colour), fried ham, pork feet, fried fish and finally a soup for dessert which was made from milk and some kind of nuts (very tasty).
Besides the dinner it was nice to actually talk to some locals and get to know about their opinion about education, overpopulation, travelling, working for the government and food of course!
At the 16th Cornelius and I started to work at the GSIS and we have been extremely busy since then as we work at the school from morning till afternoon and go flat hunting afterwards.
So far, we have been enjoying our work at the school as everyone is mighty friendly and supports us from the bottom of their hearts. We receive many hints where to get good food, cheap shopping or get invited to lunch. In addition we can sometimes leave earlier if we have a flat-viewing in the afternoon. As school starts on Monday it will get more busy and we will have to work overtime for a few days.
That is why we try to find an apartment as soon as possible but it has been a drag so far! After hours on the Internet searching for flats, followed by numerous calls to agents and lots of flat viewings we finally found 2 possible options for accommodation. Wish us luck that something works out!
Today I was in the mood to take a look at some of the lush-green spots of Hong Kong. Therefore my journey took me, besides other places, to KowLoon Park which is extremely beautiful and located just north of a popular shopping area. It is a neat place to escape the heat, sitting under the ancient mangrove trees watching the fish in one of the numerous ponds.
I used the time on a bench to discover the secrets of my new HK-SimCard.-->Proud owner of a Hk cell phone number :)
On my way back to the Island I had the chance to take a great shot of the skyline which I do not want to keep from you.
Back on the island I headed towards the Mid-Level-Escalator which is a mixture of stairs and escalators going up- and downhill. They connect the district Central with Soho and Mid-Level, one being popular for its nightlife and the other a fancied living district halfway up the hill, hence the name. The 30.000 people probably chose to live there because of the panorama like view and the quick way to work in central or maybe because of the beer on the way home?! ;)
At the top of the "escalator" I took a turn left and walked downhill towards the zoological garden which is really worth the trip. It features some reptiles, mammals and bird, too.
As the space in Hong Kong is limited by steep mountains it is amazing how architects use the available space to place infrastructure, buildings and parks next to each other. Most of the times the shift between concrete and soil is abrupt as ground is highly expensive.
The plans for tonight are to meet an old friend from Canada who is in town and pick up my future roommate Cornelius at the airport.
As I arrived yesterday I can finally share my first impressions of Hong Kong!
My flight was pleasant and public transport perfect as it is cheap compared to Germany and you can even pay with a rechargeable card called the Octopus Card. I was in such good spirits that not even the high temperature of 36 degrees and high humidity combined with a long walking distance and heavy luggage couldn't break my spirit.
The hostel in Causeway Bay has really good service,is neat, good located and clean. My friend and future roommate, who will work at the GSIS as well, and I decided to search for a flat to rent on site. Wish us luck!
During my first day I was just strolling through town for about 8 hours without a real destination, just lead by intuition and mood. My first impressions were somewhat like that: Hot, humid and lots of people/ shopping centres/ skyscrapers.
In the end I found myself on the Peak sky platform offering me this great view!
Tomorrow, my future roommate Cornelius will arrive and we might already search for a suitable accommodation...or discover more of the town, depending on the time and his mood. On Tuesday we will have our first day at the school even though the students still have summer vacation :(
Well, I guess it is good to get to know our colleagues and the school plus we won't have to work full time.
"Hong Kong is like life, full of unknown things but riddled with chances to grab"
Finally, I have settled all my obligations in good old Germany! The requested first-aid course for my work in Hong Kong was literally completed during the last days of my stay at "home".
Only packing is left to do as I already got my Visa, my place to work and a temporary place to sleep (hostel).
In the next two days I will piece together my precious belongings to fill two bags of lluggage memories to move on to pastures new.
Uncertainty, a thirst for adventure and an open mind will be my constant companions for the next weeks. Obviously I will share a selection of impressions on this blog. Just give me some time to get my jaw back in place as I will probably flabbergasted by this amazing city!
